PHILIPPINES FOSS PROFILE

THE PHILIPPINES, an island nation in Southeast Asia comprising 7,107 islands (approximately 700 inhabited), has the advantage of strong English-language skills, a proportionately huge (nearly 10 percent of its population) diaspora community, and a well-organised free and open source software (FOSS) community.

What is interesting here is both the visible contributions from the Philippines to the FOSS world, and the networks that are building the movement in this developing country with an agricultural base, light industry and a service-sector economy. The Philippines also has one of the most vibrant business processing outsourcing industries in Asia, which could help give it the global perspective needed to build further FOSS linkages.

An educational system considered efficient, one of the highest literacy levels in Asia, and equal education for males and females are also other factors that could be to the Philippines' advantage when it comes to building FOSS in this country of 85 million (making it the 13th most populous in the world).

For instance, a report in one blog http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/2006.07.22.php#anchor-3 -- said that Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols played with Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends to see what countries Linux is popular. According to this post: Philippines is on the top four for Ubuntu. Top three for Asterisk. Top seven for MySQL?. Top five for postgresql. (It was not possible to verify these results -FN).

FOSS LINKS

• Philippine Linux Users' Group. A non-stock, non-profit
• organization dedicated to the advancement of Linux and free and
• open source technologies. http://linux.org.ph/ Filipino-made Free
• and Open Source Software Index that are authored, developed and/or
• maintained by Filipinos. http://linux.org.ph/forge/

FOSS NETWORKS

[phpug-ph]? 200 Members (July 2006). Membership required. PHP User Group Philippines (PHPUG-PH) discussion and mailing list. ONLY Filipinos are encourage to join the group. You need to prove you are Pinoy before you can join. What is PHP? PHP (recursive acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor") is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. What can PHP do? Anything. PHP is mainly focused on server-side scripting, so you can do anything any other CGI program can do, such as collect form data, generate dynamic page content, or send and receive cookies. But PHP can do much more.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phpug-ph/

[ossa-ph]? 193 Members (July 2006). Membership required. The Open Source Software Association of the Philippines (OSSA-PH). In cooperation with the Open Source and Computer Security Laboratory, Infoweapons, DOST 7, CVISNet? and COSPO. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ossa-ph/

[openminds_ph]? 115 Members (July 2006) Membership required. Mailing list for Philippine Open Source advocates. LUGs?, Open Source companies and individuals that believe that Open Source is the way to go to promote IT development in the Philippines are invited to join and participate in the discussions.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openminds_ph/

[POSX]? 72 Members (July 2006). Membership required. Pampanga Open Source eXchange (POSX) is a budding community of Open Source software users, developers and enthusiasts within and around the province of Pampanga, Philippines. Open to all interested.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/POSX/

[cmos_ilocos]? 33 Members (July 2006). Membership required. This group is the community movers for Open Systems from Ilocos Region, Philippines. This group is open to Open Source users, developers, educators, etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmos_ilocos/

[tip_penguins]? 49 Members (July 2006). Membership required. Advocates of open source in the Technological Institute of the Philippines.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tip_penguins/

[mysql_philippines]? 16 Members (July 2006). Membership required. Open Source and Support for MySQL? here in the Philippines

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysql_philippines/

[philgrass]? 14 Members (July 2006). Membership required. The Philippines GRASS Users Group is a community of individuals in the Philippnes who are interested in the use and development of the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS), an Open Source Geographic Information System. The community is committed to the sharing and dissemination of knowledge in spatial information technologies in support of national development and aims to contribute to the community of GRASS Users worldwide.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/philgrass/

[SOS_e-Group]? 6 Members (2006). Membership required. The Southern Tagalog Open Source e-Group (SOS_e-Group) is a group of concerned individuals in Southern Tagalog Region (Region IV), Philippines, advocating and promoting the use of open source technologies.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SOS_e-Group/

[penpayroll]? 6 Members. Membership required. Anahaw Open Payroll System is an open source window/linux based payroll program especially designed for Philippines. It can be used by other countries with similar tax setup or it can be easily modified to suit any particular need. Advantages include: unparalleled reliability; low cost; wide area networking; A common interface available on all computers - a web browser; and minimal investment in infrastructure - the Internet is built largely on open source software implementation.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openpayroll/

[klug]? Kagay-anon Linux Users' Group (KLUG) mailing list

http://cdo.linux.org.ph/ Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph/

[coreblog]? International discussion forum about Coreblog, the blogging software running on Zope.

http://postaria.com/mailman/listinfo/coreblog-en

[free.net.ph]? The Free Network Group (Philippines) http://free.net.ph/

A new mailing list for discussions about the Software Freedom Day celebrations in the Philippines has been set up on the free.net.ph mailing list server. Interested parties are invited to join by going to the list subscription page http://lists.free.net.ph/mailman/listinfo/sf-philippines and Searchable archives

http://archives.free.net.ph/list/sf-philippines.html

[ph-linuxnewbie]? 296 Members (July 2006). This is a moderated group for Linux newbie in the Philippines, particularly in Metro Manila, but users from other cities and provinces are encouraged to join. The function of this list is mostly centered on helping each other.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ph-linuxnewbie/

[LAMP-Pilipinas]? 81 members (July 2006). (L)inux (A)pache (M)ySQL (P)HP (Former LAMP Philippines Group). "The best open-source technologies currently available. Our intent is to propagate the knowledge that there is a BETTER alternative to Windows. Yes,this is for all those out there who are sick and tired of ActiveX? that won't work, threading that unravel, .ASP that are too slow, development support which you haven't seen or heard, and licenses that cost an arm and a leg."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LAMP-Pilipinas/

[The_Philippines_Linux_Users_Group]? 38 members (July 2006). This is a community of newbie and gurus who are helping each other in advocating the use of GNU/Linux, especially the Bayanihan Linux.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Philippines_Linux_Users_Group/

[pinoy-hackers]? 38 Members. Membership required. Pinoy Hackers is a officially meeting place of hackers and crackers in the Philippines. Pinoy Hackers is one of the largest hacking group in the world with one of the most intelligent and cracking brains on the planet. We teach everything from hacking in Windows to Linux. From hacking id's to defacing a website. We have experience in all the major hacking fields present. One can meet the best hackers and crackers of the world in this group who have done various black dark hacks.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinoy-hackers/

[makati-lug]? 67 Members (July 2006). Public. The Makati Linux Users Group is formed as a casual get-together of Linux users in the Makati (Philippines) area.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/makati-lug/

[ph-lug]? 17 users (July 2006). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ph-lug/

Other smaller LUGs? on Yahoogroups:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ph-linux/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UPLaw-LUG-list/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UP-LUG-list/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PhLUG/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxjobs-ph/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phfoss-jobs/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fedora_Philippines/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phillamp/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux-barkada/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phfoss/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phfoss-jobs/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Q_Linux/

http://groups.google.com/group/UnPLUG?lnk=srg

MAILING LISTS ARCHIVED AS NEWSGROUPS

[plug]? Philippine Linux User Group plug@lists.q-linux.com http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.philippine

FOSS SOFTWARE

• CHITS (or Community Health Information Tracking System) is a
• patient-tracking system made by the University of the Philippines
• Manila - Medical Informatics Unit. It is funded largely by the
• Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme, a collaboration between UNDP
• Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, International
• Development Research Centre of Canada, Asia Pacific Network
• Information Centre and Asian Media Information and Communication
• Centre. The systems developed within the project context is Free
• Software licensed under the GNU GPL. Dr. Alvin Marcelo, one of the
• proponents of CHITS, was selected as Ten Outstanding Young Men of
• the Philippines for his contributions to the project. Recently
• CHITS has been recommended as one of the finalists in the
• Stockholm Challenge Award 2006. CHITS is the brainchild of Dr.
• Herman Tolentino, who along with Dr. Alvin Marcelo, Dr. Cito
• Maramba, Prof. Ariel Betan of UP Manila, Marvin Yoingco, Alison
• Perez, Michael Muin, Oscar Plameras, Roxanne Ramos, Alison Perez,
• made this project to answer the needs of local health centres.
• http://www.chits.info/ Boost.Spirit is an object-oriented
• recursive descent parser framework implemented using template
• meta-programming techniques for C++. This is part of the Boost
• libraries -- a collection of peer-reviewed libraries that are
• candidates for inclusion in the C++ Standard Template Library.
• Joel de Guzman of Boost Consulting leads this collaborative
• effort. http://spirit.sourceforge.net/ OpenKiosk? is an open-source
• multi-platform kiosk system. OpenKiosk? is ideally suited for use
• in locations where a controlled computing environment is paramount
• such as public access systems, libraries, school computer
• laboratories. OpenKiosk? 2.0 features major enhancements to both
• the clients and server module of the system. One of the key
• features is the introduction of the Kiosk-Mode User Interface.
• Kiosk-mode presents an elegant solution to prevent users from
• running unwanted programs. Furthermore, it simplifies the way
• users launch and interact with programs making it an ideal
• solution for introducing a Linux/Unix box to newcomers. If
• enabled, it completely replaces the standard desktop with a much
• more controlled but intuitive environment that looks the same
• across all platforms. Your customers will not know whether you are
• running a Windows or an OpenBSD? box under the hood. OpenKiosk? is
• authored by Abdiel Janulgue of Iligan City.
• http://openkiosk.sf.net/ Chix is a project to bring chikka to the
• open source community. Currently there are two sets of packages
• for chix. One is the chix library and the other is the plugin for
• gaim. The project is still in alpha. The Chix project is lead by
• codename Xevuz, together with Mhac Hanapin and Joseph Anthony
• Hermocilla. http://chix.sourceforge.net/ Squishdot is a news
• publishing and discussion product for Zope. It creates a place in
• your website where people can post short articles, news items,
• announcements, etc. as well as hold threaded discussions about
• them. In other words, Squishdot is a weblog product. Butch
• Landingin is the original author of this software.
• http://www.squishdot.org/ Cruxade is a project using the Mozilla
• programming framework for creating rich cross-platform enterprise
• applications. Nathaniel Jayme is the project leader for the
• Cruxade project. http://cruxade.mozdev.org/ Pawikan is an open
• source highly scalable network management system for small,
• medium, and large-scale networks. It aims to ease up network
• management of a complex network using its cool features such as
• network discovery and automatic configuration. ASTI spearheads the
• development of this network tool.
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/pawikan Joomla! is PHP-based
• content management system. Joomla! is made by the group
• OpenSourceMatters? - the once contributors to the Mambo CMS project
• who split from the project after an attempt by Miro to rest back
• control of Mambo and sideline the Core Team. The Joomla! project
• has a very active Filipino forum too! Rey Gigataras, the stable
• port maintainer, is one of the Filipinos involved in this
• global-scale project. http://www.joomla.org/ phpMyLibrary is a PHP
• MySQL? Library automation application. The program consist of
• cataloging, circulation, and the webpac module. The programs also
• has an import export feature. The program strictly follow the
• USMARC standard for adding materials. phpMyLibrary is authored by
• Polerio Dondon Babao III of Polerio Inc.
• http://www.phpmylibrary.org/ IPTraf? is a console-based network
• statistics utility for Linux. It gathers a variety of figures such
• as TCP connection packet and byte counts, interface statistics and
• activity indicators, TCP/UDP traffic breakdowns, and LAN station
• packet and byte counts. IPTraf? is written by Gerard Java of Mozcom
• Cebu, and is included in many GNU/Linux distributions.
• http://cebu.mozcom.com/riker/iptraf Geepeeyes is a GPS plugin for
• Google Earth Free Edition that supports NMEA protocol. Geepeeyes
• plots location, trail, speed and direction on a dynamic map view
• even if Google Earth is off-line. Ariz Jacinto is the lead
• proponent of this project. http://geepeeyes.sourceforge.net/
• XLObject? is a C++ library featuring the signal and slots
• mechanism, a type safe alternative to callbacks without relying on
• an external meta-compiler. It allows ordinary member functions of
• classes derived from Object to be treated as slots. XLObject?
• implements the Observer design pattern (Design Patterns: Elements
• of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma, et al) made popular
• by Trolltech's Qt toolkit and takes advantage of modern C++ design
• methods. XLObject? is the foundation of a C++ web toolkit patterned
• after Qt called "Wt" and the OpenKiosk? client for Windows. This
• project is authored by Abdiel Janulque. http://xlobject.sf.net/
• Expatobject is a small library that allows you to use James
• Clark's Expat XML parser library more easily with Objective C. It
• provides an object-oriented interface to the library which is
• similar to SAX2. This project is lead by Rafael Dido Sevilla.
• http://expatobjc.sourceforge.net/ xml-lit aims to be a complete
• literate programming system in the style of Donald Knuth's WEB.
• For those unfamiliar with the concept, literate programming is an
• attempt to solve many of the problems in program design and
• maintenance by fusing the tasks of documenting and writing code.
• XML-Lit is written by Rafael Dido Sevilla.
• http://xml-lit.sourceforge.net/ Quick-R is a turnkey solution
• which enables Internet service providers and enterprises to offer
• and easily manage prepaid dialup access. Quick-R is maintained by
• Q-Linux Solutions Inc.. http://www.q-linux.com/software/quick-r
• ACalc? is an algebraic scientific calculator written by Dr. Pablo
• Manalastas for PalmOS? 3.5 and higher versions.
• http://www.geocities.com/pablo_manalastas/acalc.html RememberMode?
• is an Emacs mode for "remembering" data such as todo lists,
• schedules, phone databases, etc. Sacha Chua now maintains
• remember.el: she maintains a new version of PlannerMode? together
• with RememberMode? and EmacsWikiMode? that makes
• reverse-chronological timestamped entries easier, which
• effectively makes the combination a blog.
• http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/RememberMode Bayanihan Linux
• is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution created by the Advanced
• Science and Technology Institute of the DOST. The project aims to
• provide a better hardware support, operation simplicity, speed,
• efficiency, stability and Windows portability.
• http://www.bayanihan.gov.ph/ Hidden Linux is a server-oriented
• Linux distribution designed to meet the need of a robust and
• easily managed security infrastructure that must satisfy a
• demanding set of organization requirements, while ensuring
• performance and security. Randy Ong of Hidden Linux Consulting is
• maintaining this distribution. http://www.hiddenlinux.com/
• LormaLINUX? is Lorma Colleges' own Linux distribution that has been
• optimized and customized to meet the needs of educational
• institutions and its students. http://linux.lorma.edu/main

ORGANIZATION HIGHLIGHT: NGOs? AND FREE SOFTWARE, A MADE-FOR-EACH-OTHER MATCH? ---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Philippines-based Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) was one of the groups that recently pushed to have a community-focussed track at the latest Linux World Philippines. The programme listed themes like free and open source software in government, health and education. The FMA then helped create an open coalition.

The Philippines-based non-profit has recently been focussing on the challenge of connecting FOSS people together. One toehold came through the Philippines Linux Users' Group (PLUG), whose vice president, Dong Calmada, has been a non-governmental organization worker.

Last year, latching onto an opportunity, FMA was one of the groups that worked to have a community-focused separate track at the Linux World Philippines event. This track specifically looked at themes like FOSS in government, health and education. "It became possible to outreach to various communities," says Al Alegre of FM.

Finally, another offer emerged in the set up of a regional node for the International Open Source Network (IOSN), an initiative of the UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP). "The IOSN possibility came to us in the middle of discussions, and we felt we should bid for setting up a regional node in the Philippines. We said FMA is weak on the technical side, and we are already doing so much. But we thought we all could submit a bid as a consortium," says Alegre.

"The idea is to spin off APDIP's IOSN into three sub-regional nodes. It is venture philanthropy in my view. They are looking to support it for a year to a year-and-half," explains Alegre.

One of the members of the consortium, the National Telehealth Center of the University of the Philippines Manila, offered to play the role of institutional bidder. The National Telehealth Center bid brought with it the interests of FOSS advocates in civil society and government.

Eventually, the IOSN ASEAN+3 node was awarded to University of the Philippines Manila. Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo, director of the National Telehealth Center, concurrently serves as node manager. http://www.iosn.net/about/news/iosn-nodes

IOSN ASEAN+3 is now one of three centres of excellence in the Asia-Pacific region. The other two centres of excellence are based in Chennai, India and Suva, Fiji. More information on IOSN ASEAN+3 can be found at www.iosn.net/asean-3 or contact asean3@iosn.net

In August 2006, along comes the upcoming Philippine Open Source Conference and Linux World Philippines is scheduled in October. "We have also been offered to have a public interest track in that," says Alegre.

Commissioner Lallana is handling human capital development. So, if they cannot expect big policy, their goal is to focus on schools, colleges, and building centres of excellence "in places where there already is knowledge, computers, professors who could influence young people."

"That's going well. The question is how we support and link up with FOSS in private education efforts," says Alegre.

EVENT: EXPERIENCES AT LINUXWORLD PHILIPPINES

LinuxWorld? Philippines is the biggest and only nationwide FOSS event in the country. In September 2005, Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) coordinated the civil society participation in the LinuxWorld? Philippines event, held at mid-month in Makati City, MetroManila?.

"This three-day event aims at showcasing and discussing GNU/Linux and other free and open source solutions that the government, private sector, academe and civil society may tap for various purposes," Al Alegre and Nina Somera of FMA said.

"The good news is that we have been successful in convincing -- the organizers Media G8Way, the top publisher of ICT publications here, affiliated with the IDG group, (http://www.mediag8way.com/events) -- to have a separate track for public interest and policy concerns. This would be aside from the usual event tracks: business applications, technical and systems, workshops," FMA organizers said.

The Public Interest and Advocacy track consisted of sessions that tackled the policy issues around FOSS; the use of FOSS in different sectors such as education, health, and environment; and the implications of FOSS on gender and intellectual property regimes. It also looked at FOSS-based tools which non-profits can deploy for advocacy, secure online communications; FOSS migration cases and many more.

FMA's participation in Linux World is basically a follow up to its on-going Policy, Praxis and Public Interest forum series. Framing FOSS as a development imperative, FMA organized a forum on the political and social implications on FOSS in last year's conference, then called the Philippine Open Source Conference. FMA also organized one of the first FOSS training-workshops for NGOs? in October 2004.

Track 4, focusing on Public Interest and Advocacy, was organized at the Dusit Hotel Makati from September 14-16. It was aimed at the people who want to go beyond business applications or technical competency.

Aiming to get the traditional GNU/Linux and FOSS crowd interested in public policy and advocacy, it also targets a potential new emerging constituency -- the nonprofit/NGO crowd, who are into GNU/Linux and FOSS for its social and political implications. Organizers extended to NGOs? and government personnel a discounted rate, to encourage their full participation.

Key sessions at this event looked at FOSS@PH (The State of GNU/Linux and FOSS in the Philippines). It then looked at FOSS@GOV.PH (GNU/Linux and FOSS in government, featuring interesting cases, highlighting learnings from current initiatives, and pinpointing challenges faced by FOSS advocates in government). The aim was to look at government in different levels -- national agencies, local governments, government corporations, and the enabling institutions such as CICT/NCC Commission on ICT- National Computer Center); and e-government applications using FOSS.

FOSS@EDU.PH was a session focussing on FOSS in education, as its name suggests. This session targetted covering different aspects of the Philippine educational ecosystem: basic public education and private education including curriculum development, teacher training; nonformal education; FOSS migration experiences within schools; use of FOSS in education and learning technologies.

FOSS@NGO.PH, on the other hand, looked at FOSS in NGOs?. It aimed at giving a report on the state of FOSS initiatives in associative organizations, feature interesting cases and experiments, highlight learnings from current initiatives, and pinpoint particular challenges faced by FOSS advocates in civil society organizations and NGOs?. Civil society organizations using FOSS in different development sectors (e.g., health, environment, media, rural development, etc.) were asked to share experiences.

FOSS, GNU/Linux, and Gender was another session. Groups like the APC member Womens' Hub and Isis International-Manila have drawn attention for their work on this front.

Besides this, the organizers also worked to have a policy forum/dialogue which looked at policy dilemmas and development imperatives, with the participation of key ICT policymakers.

"This session will pose one of the most crucial (and controversial) issues in FOSS advocacy in the Philippines. It aims to present an overview of FOSS policy initiatives undertaken in different countries, and its implications in terms of policy options for the Philippines. It will put FOSS advocates in dialogue with policy makers to explore possible recommendations. A multi-stakeholder panel (government, private sector, civil society) will be convened," organizers announced prior to the meet.

There was a wealth of angles from which this issue was looked out. One can sense how deep the Philippines has ventured into the task of building bridges between non-profits and FOSS simply by looking at the issues being tackled there.

Legal issues in FOSS was another focus, looking at licenses and licensing (OSI, GPL, FreeBSD?); legality and enforceability of FOSS (i.e., contract law, IP Code/TTA provisions, international precedents); and some interesting cases (for example, the SCO Case). A session on open standards and open content (alternatives to 'intellectual property' and the public domain)was likewise held.

Other sessions looked at FOSS for advocacy, introducing public interest organisations to basic software tools to fulfil one of the basic functions of development organisations as well as tools anabling secure computing and online communications. FOSS tools for creative professions were also presented.

There was also a focus on the FOSS business models for small, marginal and medium enterprises; FOSS in the creative professions (writing for GNU/Linux, and GNU/Linux for writers); adopting a GNU/Linux lifestyle; nurturing and sustaining the Philippine FOSS ecosystem (understanding what needs to be done to promote FOSS in a strategic and programmatic way); and working on an action plan.

Track 4 culminated in a session, "Nurturing and Sustaining the Philippine FOSS Ecosystem" whose objectives are to map the prerequisites in mainstreaming FOSS and to design a strategic and programmatic approach in addressing these needs.

UBUNTU-LINKED BLOGS IN THE PHILIPPINES

• Aldous D. PeC?1aranda http://deathwing.penarmac.com/
• Charo Nuguid http://thegeekettespeaketh.pinoyweb.net/
• Clair Ching http://clair.free.net.ph/
• Dave T. Asuncion, Jr. http://teqnix.blogspot.com/
• Diane Gonzales http://feedblendr.com/subscribe/2922
• Donnie Lomat http://indizero.wordpress.com/
• Edu Timbol http://techthroes.blogspot.com/
• Eric Pareja http://www.advogato.org/person/pusakat/
• Gabriel L. Briones III http://jond3rd.blogspot.com/
• Irvin Piraman http://blog.thefluxproject.com/
• JM Ibanez http://jmibanez.livejournal.com/
• Jerome Gotangco http://loktarogar.blogspot.com/
• Jonathan Doblados http://ubuntu-ph.org/planet/
• Joset Anthony D.L.S. Zamora http://eradicus.blogsome.com/
• Kristina Lim http://thenonymous.wordpress.com/
• Miguel Araquel http://migma.livejournal.com/
• RJ Arce http://ardzeii.tripod.com/
• Ryan Escarez http://ubuntu-ph.org/planet/
• Yolynne Medina http://yolynne.wordpress.com/
• Zak B. Elep http://zakame.spunge.org/blog

OTHER BLOGS

sacha chua - geek - girl - technology evangelist wannabe

http://sacha.free.net.ph/

BAYANIHAN LINUX

4th version of Bayanihan Linux OS to be launched soon http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=4654

By Alexander Villafania (INQ7.net JUNE 12, 2006): The Department of Science and Technology-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI) will soon be launching the next desktop and server versions of the Bayanihan Linux operating system. The ASTI Open Source Group recently launched the second beta release of Bayanihan Linux 4, based on the Debian GNU/Linux open source software, which is one of the most popular versions of Linux.

Previous versions of Bayanihan Linux, which were launched in 2001 were based on Red Hat Linux and Fedora, two other free Linux flavors. ASTI started developing Bayanihan Linux in an effort to provide a cost-effective alternative to the more expensive but widely popular Microsoft Windows operating system. Bayanihan Linux could also be custom-made for Filipino home users and companies, Subsequent versions of Bayanihan Linux only had one CD installer.

ASTI said in its website (www.asti.dost.gov.ph) that the new Bayanihan Linux 4 has significantly improved features such as local networking; running Microsoft Windows programs through a free software called WINE; an anti-virus application called Klamav, integrated CD and DVD copying; web camera and photo-editing functions; as well as remote desktop access and serial ATA drive support. The agency is also planning to release the first server version of Bayanihan Linux, though details of its functions have not yet been released. It may, however, also be based on Debian GNU/Linux.

DISTROS FROM THE PHILIPPINES